Strange remarks from a world leader. France is not a country run along lines of religious apartheid, why Sharon thinks that French citizens should choose Isreal as their new home to escape religious bigotry is unclear.
Sharon urges Jews to leave France as attacks increase
ARIEL SHARON, the Israeli Prime Minister, has called on all Jews living in France to move to Israel immediately because of a rise in anti-Semitism.
“Altogether I have to advocate to our brothers in France: move to Israel as early as possible,” Mr Sharon told a meeting of an American Jewish association in Jerusalem.
“That’s what I say to Jews all around the world but there (France) I think it’s a must. They have to move immediately.”
Mr Sharon praised the French Government for taking action against the “spread of the wildest anti-Semitism” but said that it was struggling against the impact of the growth of the Muslim community. France is home to Europe’s biggest Jewish and Muslim communities, estimated at 600,000 and five million respectively.
According to French Interior Ministry statistics, the number of racist incidents has soared this year. There were 135 physical acts (vandalism, arson, assault and attacks or attempted attacks) against Jews in the first half of this year, compared with 127 for all of last year, according to the statistics. For the same period, there were another 95 acts against other ethnic groups — mainly those of North African Arab background — compared to 92 for all of last year.
France was gripped by a bout of soul-searching about anti-Semitism last week when a 23-year-old woman told police that six youths had accosted her on a Paris suburban train, slashing her clothes and drawing swastikas on her stomach after mistaking her for a Jew. She admitted later that she had made up the entire incident and begged forgiveness in a TV apology.
However France denounced Mr Sharon’s call and said the Israeli authorities had been contacted to explain “these unacceptable comments”.
In another development Shimon Peres, the Israeli opposition leader, has called for an accelerated withdrawal from the Gaza Strip at talks with Mr Sharon about joining his Government, according to political sources. They said that Mr Sharon, who seeks to bolster a coalition shaken by the rejection of his plan to pull out of Gaza by the end of next year, ducked agreeing to a new timetable at the meeting.
Mr Sharon lost his parliamentary majority last month after dismissing two pro- settler ministers who opposed his Gaza plan. “We are at the height of negotiations on expanding the coalition, and it is possible that these will lead to a reshuffle of ministerial roles,” he told his Cabinet yesterday. “All this could have been avoided had members of the Government not tried to undermine the disengagement plan.”
Most Israelis would like to part with Gaza, where 7,500 settlers live among 1.3 million Palestinians. Israel captured the strip in the 1967 war and has been fighting a Palestinian uprising for four years.
Last week the Deputy Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert — who has in the past acted as Mr Sharon’s political outrider by broaching his new policies publicly — voiced support for a faster withdrawal. “That is something which ought to be examined carefully,” he said on a visit to Turkey.
As well as demanding a swifter Gaza withdrawal, Labour has opposed the belt-tightening budgets of Likud’s Finance Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu.
But political sources said that Mr Sharon made it clear to Mr Peres yesterday that there would be no change in economic policy.
A Sharon confidant said that the Prime Minister was keeping his options open.
and complete hypocrisy, If france is allegedly anti semitic and racist what exactly is Israel!